A study by John Hopkins University estimates that there is one albino for every seventeen thousand people in the world. In Aicuña, according to Julio César Ormeño, the head of the Vital Records Office, there live about three hundred people. At its most populous, he says, there have been three hundred and fifty. The town is so small that every inhabitant—including the newborns, the elderly, and the church minister—could fit into a movie theater.

Of that total, the head of the Vital Records Office has taken census of four albinos, all men—three that currently live in Aicuña and one who moved to another town two hours away. But his archives also say something more: since the end of the nineteenth century, forty-six albino births have been registered in Aicuña alone.

According to the math, the rate of albinism in Aicuña isn’t one in every seventeen thousand people but rather one in every ninety. Or as Dr. Eduardo Castilla, the author of “Aicuña: A Study of the Population’s Genetic Structure,” maintains: albinism is almost two hundred times more likely to occur in Aicuña than anywhere else on the planet.

When Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete addressed his nation on the first day of the new year, he denounced the horrific increasing trend of albinos (humans) being targeted for murders in order that their organs might be harvested.

‘There are also those who believe that possession of some organs of infants and albinos can turn them rich,’ Kikwete stated. The police have been ordered to crack down on such practices that Kikwete believes are tied to growing interest in witchcraft.

Tanzania’s Albino society recently complained that albinos were being targeted by some witch-doctors, following a string of murders.

Whiter Shade of Tail

Back in the '90s I discovered a partially albinistic robin in a nearby park. I was much impressed. Though, after I marched all my biology classes the three-quarters of mile to the area to show them the lingering bird, they were not so impressed.
Scott Maruna is a high school science teacher and author from west central Illinois with a fascination in all forms of anomalous natural history. He may be contacted at hissingcockroaches (at) yahoo.com.